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Maria, who lives in Portugal and holds plant medicine ceremonies in several countries, got an unexpected call from the police one day informing her that customs was holding ayahuasca shipped to her from Peru, and she was being charged with international trafficking. Unsure what to do, she called the Ayahuasca Defense Fund (ADF), which provides support to people facing legal repercussions for serving ayahuasca and other plant medicines.
The ADF’s human rights lawyer, Natalia Rebollo, got back to Maria with some legal defenses she could use when she spoke to police, the opinion of another lawyer who works with the organization, and the words of a university professor defending ayahuasca as something natural and medicinal. Maria also got her own lawyer, who advised her not to comment officially to the police.
Since 2010, the Ayahuasca Defense Fund—which is part of the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service—has assisted with 129 legal incidents in 28 countries, according to Rebollo.
